liberal arts

American  

plural noun

1. the academic course of instruction at a college intended to provide general knowledge and comprising the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences, as opposed to professional or technical subjects.

2. (during the Middle Ages) studies comprising the quadrivium and trivium, including arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, music, grammar, rhetoric, and logic.

---

liberal arts British  

plural noun

1. Often shortened to: arts.  the fine arts, humanities, sociology, languages, and literature

---

liberal arts ¹ Cultural  

1. The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. The term liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, although the liberal arts also include the sciences. The word liberal comes from the Latin liberalis, meaning suitable for a free man, as opposed to a slave.

---

liberal arts ² Cultural  

1. The areas of learning that cultivate general intellectual ability rather than technical or professional skills. Liberal arts is often used as a synonym for humanities, because literature, languages, history, and philosophy are often considered the primary subjects of the liberal arts. The term liberal arts originally meant arts suitable for free people (libri in Latin) but not for slaves.

---

Etymology

Origin of liberal arts

First recorded in 1745–55; translation of Latin artēs līberālēs “works befitting a free person,” literally, “skills of freedom”

Example Sentences

Liberal-arts student Sharon Kaasik says young people have grown up hearing stories about the Soviet regime before Estonia's independence in 1991 and there are worries about the past returning.

From BBC • Mar. 19, 2025

Liberal-arts majors tend to flock to Washington, not just for jobs at nonprofit organizations and in socially oriented government agencies, but also to partake of local culture.

From Washington Post • Oct. 15, 2010

Related Words

• mathematics